How to Make a 'Virtual PC' on Your USB Device

You can take everything you need with you on your USB device (such as a flash drive, external hard drive, iPod, etc). Keep reading for detailed instructions on how to make a virtual PC on your thumb drive.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Installing an Operating System

1
Configure your USB device. To make a virtual PC on your USB device, you'll need the following things:
- 8GB USB storage device
- Windows 7 DVD or ISO image file
- Microsoft WAIK software
- NT6 FAST Installer
Click here for the download.
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Open the StartCD.exe file.
It's on the left side of the window.
Click "I Agree" and select Next.
You can leave it as the default (C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\) or select a new location. Click Next.
Click Next.
When you see that the installation has been completed, click Close.
10
- Click Download in the upper-left corner.
- Select NT6_Fast_Installed.zip from the download list.
Right click on it and select Extract to NT6_Fast_Installer\.
. A command window will open up.
.
. You can find it in the sources folder.
For Windows 7 Pro, choose number 4.
For this example, we'll choose K.
Again, in the example, we'll use K.
Enter y for yes.
For the example, we'll use L.
Once your installation has reached 100%, you can boot the operating system from your USB drive.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Installing Applications

At the very least, install an email client (if your email provider allows POP3 access) and an Internet browser. You may also want office-type applications as well as some entertainment sources.
You can search the Internet using key words, or head to some sites devoted to portable computing.
4
Browse this list of suggested applications. You might find some of these useful on a USB drive:
- 1by1 — MP3 directory player
- 7-zip portable — Archive manager
- AceMoney Lite — Financial tracking software
- Firefox Portable — Portable version of this browser
- Foxit PDF — Portable PDF Reader
- Filezilla Portable — FTP client
- FreeOTFE — Free disk encryption software
- GIMP Portable — Image Manipulator
- Google Talk — Portable version
- Opera USB — Portable version of Opera browser
- OpenOffice Portable — Full Office suite
- Pidgin Portable — Multi-network IM (formerly known as Gaim)
- Portable Scribus — Portable Publishing Tool
- Sudoku Portable — To pass the time...
- SyncBack — Synchronization / backup application
- The Sage — Great Dictionary
- Thunderbird Portable — Email client
- Torpark — Portable TOR browser client for anonymous browsing
- TrueCrypt — Free disk encryption software
- uTorrent — Lightweight BitTorrent client
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Community Q&A

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Question
If I want to erase the OS, can I format the flash drive?
Tim Leon
Community Answer
Yes. Just format the flash drive. That's all you have to do to erase the OS. It will get rid of the OS partition tables and create new ones, then delete all the old files from it as well.
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Question
Can it work with Windows 8?
Community Answer
Yes, if you have an ISO image. Do not install Windows 8 Enterprise.
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Question
Can I run games on my virtual PC on my USB device?
Community Answer
Yes, although you'd need a flash drive with a capacity large enough to store the game, and you can expect some lag and loading time.
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Tips

Not everything is fully portable. Check for changes that need to be made on some applications.
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Run backups often! Changes are made to files each time you use the application. This is especially true with email and browser apps. USB devices are small compared with PC drives, so backing up your entire USB device to your PC should be no problem.
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